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Assistant coaching: Tough job, but many want to do it

Only a select few assistants have true job security; the rest, from the lower rung of the Football Bowl Subdivision to the top programs in college football, must grow accustomed to the strain and pressure of instability.

After so many years and so many moves, West Virginia safeties coach Tony Gibson has developed a routine. Whenever he changes jobs — and he's been at four schools in as many years — Gibson will head to his new stop a few months ahead of his family, giving him time to complete the current recruiting cycle before being reunited with his wife and two children.

To Gibson, this makes the best of a challenging situation — one that is all too familiar for assistant coaches throughout college football.

Only a select few assistants have true job security; the rest, from the lower rung of the Football Bowl Subdivision to the top programs in college football, must grow accustomed to the strain and pressure of instability. In many ways, being an assistant coach on the FBS level is an itinerant profession, one that stands in direct contrast to what in comparison is the stability of serving as a head coach.

"It's been tough," Gibson said of his four-year, four-school progression. "So I think what you look for is at this level, as anywhere in life, you want to be stable and have your kids and family all happy. There were a few years when it was hard on everybody."

He's not alone. According to an annual survey of assistant football coaches salaries done by USA TODAY Sports, nine assistants have worked at four different schools during the past four years. Two coaches, Tennessee wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni and UTEP offensive line coach Spencer Leftwich, have served at a different school in each of the past five seasons.

Another assistant, Virginia Tech offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler, has spent the past seven years at six different stops — one being a season with the Detroit Lions in 2008. Since the end of that 2008 season, Loeffler has spent two seasons at Florida, one year at Temple, one unforgettably unproductive year at Auburn and one season with the Hokies.

"There's a few of us here over the last few years that have had to move year after year," North Carolina State offensive coordinator Matt Canada said. "It's just sometimes because you have to, sometimes because you think it's the right move. I guess like in any business, you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. You just got to keep going."

Even the nation's elite programs are not immune to significant coaching turnover. Florida State, which sits No. 1 in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll, entered this season with six new assistant coaches. Alabama has won three of the past four national championships despite changing offensive coordinators and losing several key assistants.

It's simply part of the lifestyle: College football assistants must accept the sort of upheaval and lack of stability that can be taxing to coaches and their families.

"Yeah, it's challenging," Loeffler said. "But a lot of those situations that we were in, a lot of that was out of your control. You didn't have a say because you were there for such a short period of time, catching the end of the road of some deals. It's a lot out of your control, and You've just got to deal with it."

Said Louisiana-Monroe coach Todd Berry, the third vice-president of the American Football Coaches Association: "You have to be a tremendous competitor, there's no question, to survive at the collegiate level. And in the process of doing that, in that competitive nature, you've got to have I think a strong moral fiber about you."

Virginia Tech offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler has spent the past seven years at six different coaching stops.(Photo: Matt Gentry AP)

TIGHT CONTRACTS

Gibson is one of the lucky ones. Despite holding four jobs in four years, only once has he been forced to reenter the hiring pool — fired, in other words. That came after the 2010 season, when the insecurity of Gibson's final few weeks working under coach Rich Rodriguez at Michigan — the entire staff was let go after a Gator Bowl loss — had him in "scramble mode."

"Nobody knew what was going to happen," Gibson said. "You don't know where your next paycheck is going to come from. So it's tough. It's tough on everybody. It's tough on my kids, tough on my wife. I was fortunate enough within a couple days to get the job offer at Pittsburgh (in 2011) and take it."

When the coaching staff was fired at Michigan in early 2011, athletic director Dave Brandon said the school would pay Gibson and his fellow assistants through the end of June, regardless of whether or not they were hired elsewhere.

But that instance stands as the exception to the rule. Many FBS assistant coaches work under tight contractual obligations.

At Army, for example, most coaches serve under one-year contracts and are required to live in housing provided by the athletic department. If fired, an assistant coach must vacate his school housing within 30 days — or pay the athletic department $300 a day for extra time.

At Rutgers, if some assistant coaches terminate their contract without cause before the conclusion of the last game of the season, including a bowl game, they would have to pay the school an amount equal to their current annual salary. Middle Tennessee State has the right to fire many of its assistant coaches at any time without any further payment, an agreement far different from the normal buyouts associated with a head coach's contract.

In total, the average pay for assistant coaches at the FBS level has risen in the past 12 months to nearly $216,000, up 7.5% from the 2012 season. There are 23 assistants making at least $600,000 this year, more than double the number at that level in 2010.

"We make more money than we ever dreamed," Canada said. "I started out making five grand. Twenty years ago, I don't think anyone would have ever thought that things would get the way they are."

Yet with increased pay comes increased scrutiny for head coaches and assistants alike; with increased scrutiny and increased pressure comes increased expectations, which in turn plays a large role in the number of quick-trigger coaching moves seen on the FBS level.

"The way that this profession has changed — the pressure to win, the pressure to win right now — it's you better win," Loeffler said. "And if you don't win, you normally have to move from next job to next job. That's just the nature of the beast. It's what occurs in the NFL.

"It's what occurs in college football, and you've got to find ways to do it the right way, and obviously find ways to win. That's our business right now."

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No. 21 (tie) Brent Pease, Florida’s former offensive coordinator: $600,000. Under a one-year contract extension he got in January 2013, Pease was scheduled to receive an additional $100,000 as a longevity payment if he was employed by Florida as of Jan. 31, 2014. However, he was fired Dec. 1.
Kim Klement, USA TODAY Sports

No. 21 (tie) Tom O’Brien, Virginia associate head coach for offense: $600,000. Fired as North Carolina State’s head coach last November, O’Brien struck a deal under which he got a $450,000 base salary and a $150,000 signing bonus. He’ll get another $300,000 if completes the second year of a two-year deal on Dec. 31, 2014 -- or if he is fired without cause.
Pete Emerson, UVa Media Relations

No. 21 (tie) Cam Cameron, LSU offensive coordinator: $600,000. Cameron was fired as the Baltimore Ravens’ offensive coordinator late in the 2012 season, but he received a three-year contract from LSU under which his pay will leap to $1.3 million in 2014 and $1.5 million in 2015.
Derick E. Hingle, USA TODAY Sports

No. 19 Luke Fickell, Ohio State defensive coordinator: $610,000. After getting a $750,000 base salary in 2012, the season after he served as head coach in place of Jim Tressel, Fickell’s base was further reduced for this season. However, he remains the Buckeyes’ best-paid assistant.
Greg Bartram, USA TODAY Sports

No. 18 Frank Wilson (left), LSU running backs coach/recruiting coordinator: $616,667. The only assistant making at least $600,000 without being in charge of either offense or defense, Wilson is completing the second year of a three-year contract that calls for $50,000 increases after Years 1 and 2.
John Raoux, AP

No. 17 Lou Spanos (right), UCLA defensive coordinator: $625,000. Spanos’ pay increased by $75,000 over last season because of the first of two retention payments he can receive.
Don Liebig, ASUCLA Photography

No. 14 (tie) Manny Diaz (center), Texas’ former defensive coordinator: $650,000. Diaz was reassigned to other duties in the Texas athletics department on Sept. 8, one day after the Longhorns gave up 550 yards rushing in a 40-21 loss to Brigham Young.
Brendan Maloney, USA TODAY Sports

No. 14 (tie) Mike Stoops, Oklahoma associate head coach/defensive coordinator: $650,000. This year, Stoops received the first of two $50,000 retention payments. Increasing his pay from the $600,000 he got last season.
Matthew Emmons, USA TODAY Sports

No. 13 Lorenzo Ward, South Carolina defensive coordinator: $655,050. After the Gamecocks had their second consecutive 11-win season a year ago, Ward received a three-year contract with a $100,000 pay increase and a $95,000 increase in his possible incentive bonuses.
Jeremy Brevard, USA TODAY Sports

No. 11 Tim Beck Nebraska offensive coordinator: $700,000. Nebraska nearly doubled Beck’s pay after the 2012 season, and gave him a two-year contract extension that takes him through the 2015 campaign. He made $372,300 last season.
Nati Harnik, AP

No. 10 Mark Snyder, Texas A&M defensive coordinator: $708,000. Following the Aggies’ 11-2 record and Cotton Bowl victory in the 2012 season, Snyder received a $200,000 pay increase. He made a total of $210,000 in 2010 as South Florida’s defensive coordinator.
Thomas Campbell, USA TODAY Sports

No. 9 Al Borges, Michigan offensive coordinator: $709,300. Borges, who accompanied head coach Brady Hoke from San Diego State after the 2010 season, is completing the second year of three-year contract that included automatic $50,000 increases after the first and second years.
Tony Ding, AP

No. 7 (tie) Ellis Johnson, Auburn defensive coordinator: $800,000. In addition to his pay from Auburn, Johnson is collecting money from a $2.1 million buyout he received after being fired as Southern Mississippi’s head coach following the 2012 season.
Shanna Lockwood, USA TODAY Sports

No. 6 Justin Wilcox, Washington defensive coordinator: $800,004. Wilcox made about $225,000 as Boise State’s defensive coordinator in 2009; $600,000 after being hired by Tennessee in 2010; and $750,000 after being hired by Washington in 2012.
Ted S. Warren, AP

No. 5 Todd Grantham, Georgia associate head coach/defensive coordinator: $850,000. A former NFL assistant now in his fourth season at Georgia, Grantham received a $25,000 pay increase after the 2012 season.
Dave Tulis, AP

No. 4 Greg Mattison, Michigan defensive coordinator: $851,400. After last season, his second at Michigan after leaving the Baltimore Ravens, Mattison received a four-year contract that included a $50,000 raise and a retention pay arrangement that vests at a rate of nearly $4,500 per month and will total $200,000 if he stays through Dec. 31, 2016.
Raj Mehta, USA TODAY Sports

No. 3 John Chavis, LSU defensive coordinator: $1,116,657. In 2011, Chavis was making $700,000. But after the season, his contract was amended to give him $200,000 raises for the 2012, ’13 and ’14 seasons.
Derick E. Hingle, USA TODAY Sports

Assistants are often aided by the close-knit nature of the profession, the sort of fraternity where one coach may, through the grapevine, help another coach land on his feet after a staffing change.

"Our profession is very small," Loeffler said. "Everyone knows everyone, and whenever job changes occur, guys try to help others out and try to find them work, and I've been very fortunate that that's how it's occurred for myself in these five years of — uh — bouncing around, to say the least."

Far more so than with head coaches, where the hiring process is more complex, FBS assistants benefit greatly from prior relationships: Gibson, for example, has worked with Rich Rodriguez at four different stops — at Glenville State in 1996, West Virginia from 2001-07, Michigan from 2008-10 and Arizona in 2012. Canada's experience under North Carolina State coach Dave Doeren, the former coach at Northern Illinois, brought him to the ACC after one year at Wisconsin.

Even with the help of colleagues among the coaching ranks, assistant coaches who spoke with USA TODAY Sports referenced how difficult it can be to uproot families multiple times during a five-year span.

"I think the most difficult thing is your family, moving your family from place to place to place," Loeffler said. "Coaching is coaching wherever you're at. It's what you do, and it's the same routine pretty much regardless of what organization or program you're with. So I think the most difficult aspect of whenever you're bouncing from place to place is relocating your family."

Between stops at Michigan, Pittsburgh, Arizona and West Virginia, Gibson's son and daughter attended three high schools. If his family was resilient at first, Gibson said, the moves became more and more difficult until returning to West Virginia, where he previously coached from 2001-07.

Said Canada: "For the most part, for us being around kids and coaching, I think a lot of us would say we've got the greatest job. Honestly, the part you don't like is the moving."

CAREER-MINDED

So what motivates assistant coaches to handle the vagaries of the profession — the movement, the lack of security, the strain and stress it places on families?

There's the paycheck, of course, and the financial stability it provides for coaches and their families — even if for most, money is not the prime motivator.

Down the road, assistant coaches can also work their way up the ladder, following the well-traveled path from graduate assistant to position coach to coordinator to head coach.

Said Berry: "I think everybody's a little different along those lines in terms of their motivation, but there's certainly a significant number of individuals out there that make moves based off of not necessarily the money or happiness, but rather what's going to give them the best opportunity to further their career and maybe be head coaches down the road."

But for assistants who spoke with USA TODAY Sports, the job itself, despite its pressures and instability, is the draw.

"I'm sure if you look from afar, if you didn't know the business, or if you didn't know what goes in and out of it, you'd probably say we are crazy," Loeffler said. "You would. If you really look at it from afar, any educated person would say, 'You gotta be kidding me.' But, you know, 99.9% of the coaches out there are extremely passionate about what they do — and I'm one of those guys."

Said Canada: "There's a guy who said to me a long time ago, 'If you could live without it, you would.' As much as coaches, we grind and we work, we're on the road recruiting and everything else, we love what we do and we love being around the guys. I think a lot of us would say that."